In order to have a meeting involving participants not located in the same area, a number of technological systems are available. These systems may include video conferencing, web conferencing and audio conferencing.
The most realistic substitute for real meetings is high-end video conferencing systems. Conventional video conferencing systems comprise a number of endpoints communicating real-time video, audio and/or data streams over WAN, LAN and/or circuit switched networks. The endpoints include one or more monitors, cameras, microphones and/or data capture devices and a codec, which encodes and decodes outgoing and incoming streams, respectively. In addition, a centralized source, known as a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU), is needed to link the multiple end-points together. The MCU performs this linking by receiving the multimedia signals (audio, video and/or data) from endpoint terminals over point-to-point connections, processing the received signals, and retransmitting the processed signals to selected endpoint terminals in the conference.
In all video conferencing systems it is crucial that eye contact between the users is as natural as possible. This can be achieved if the screen and camera are placed close together and at a natural straight ahead view angle. The challenge arises in designing a compact collapsible videoconferencing system, and the need for such a product increases as the wireless technology emerges. It is important to keep the system simple to operate for the user.
The problem with a regular format laptop type videoconferencing system is that the screen and camera would be positioned too low for a straight ahead view angle. The person at the opposite end will experience that he or she is being looked down at. The system could of course be placed on top of a stack of books, but this is not a practical solution. One alternative way to alleviate this problem is to make a laptop that is longer than normal, but this would not be as compact and it would probably take up more desk space. Another alternative is to make a regular laptop format system, but have the possibility of sliding the screen and camera up after opening the lid. This would require two operations to get the system up and would be too laborious for most people.
There are several different desktop videoconferencing systems on the market, but none of these are collapsible. No laptop computers using a similar solution to elevate the screen are known.